Third update this month also addresses Beta's instability.

Today's update for Chrome Beta helps alleviate some issues and improves the overall stability of the mobile browser application for Android. The update contains fixes for "frequently occurring crashes," according to Google's official Chrome Releases blog, and it gives page rendering performance a bump. The newest update also fixes a few pesky annoyances: eliminating a bug that would prevent users from scrolling through a webpage after zooming into an image and removing the blue line that would sometimes display below the omnibox.

The last major Chrome Beta for Android update hit earlier this month, when the Chrome Team released version 27 to the Beta channel. That release included the ability to search a query directly from the browser's omnibox. It enabled full-screen browsing on phones and made tab history for tablets available with a long press of the back button too. Google did launch a smaller update last week for only ARM and x86 devices, which fixed flickering when opening new tabs and eliminated duplicate items in the history.

You can try out Google Chrome Beta yourself in the Google Play store alongside the regular version of Chrome. Keep in mind, some of its new features may sometimes "be a little rough around the edges"—as evidenced by a steady stream of updates.

Does the beta re-render all your tabs when you come back to them, like the stable version? That is the biggest reason I cannot use Chrome on Android. I can't stand the "refresh" every time I leave a tab for more than a few moments...

Does the beta re-render all your tabs when you come back to them, like the stable version? That is the biggest reason I cannot use Chrome on Android. I can't stand the "refresh" every time I leave a tab for more than a few moments...

No other browser I have tried ever does that.

I don't think I've been encountering that (aside from when I have 4+ tabs open), aside from a few glitches solved by restarting the browser. That said, the page does "flash" for a second (probably not a good way to describe it) in the Beta and more recent stable versions, which seems to have been fixed in the latest beta. (Galaxy Nexus on 4.2.2 in case anyone was wondering)

Does the beta re-render all your tabs when you come back to them, like the stable version? That is the biggest reason I cannot use Chrome on Android. I can't stand the "refresh" every time I leave a tab for more than a few moments...

No other browser I have tried ever does that.

I don't think I've been encountering that (aside from when I have 4+ tabs open), aside from a few glitches solved by restarting the browser. That said, the page does "flash" for a second (probably not a good way to describe it) in the Beta and more recent stable versions, which seems to have been fixed in the latest beta. (Galaxy Nexus on 4.2.2 in case anyone was wondering)

Thanks very much for the feedback. I decided to install it on my Nexus 7, but it still has the same effect. I kept 7 Ars tabs open and read through one article. After 5 minutes, when I returned to several pages, they refreshed and "flashed" before displaying.

Does the beta re-render all your tabs when you come back to them, like the stable version? That is the biggest reason I cannot use Chrome on Android. I can't stand the "refresh" every time I leave a tab for more than a few moments...

No other browser I have tried ever does that.

I don't think I've been encountering that (aside from when I have 4+ tabs open), aside from a few glitches solved by restarting the browser. That said, the page does "flash" for a second (probably not a good way to describe it) in the Beta and more recent stable versions, which seems to have been fixed in the latest beta. (Galaxy Nexus on 4.2.2 in case anyone was wondering)

Thanks very much for the feedback. I decided to install it on my Nexus 7, but it still has the same effect. I kept 7 Ars tabs open and read through one article. After 5 minutes, when I returned to several pages, they refreshed and "flashed" before displaying.

It may be minor for some people, but I can't stand it.

:-(

I think thats just a lack of RAM. Chrome for Android seems really heavy on memory compared to other mobile browsers, so I suspect with 1 GB of RAM you're going to have that problem.

Does the beta re-render all your tabs when you come back to them, like the stable version? That is the biggest reason I cannot use Chrome on Android. I can't stand the "refresh" every time I leave a tab for more than a few moments...

No other browser I have tried ever does that.

I don't think I've been encountering that (aside from when I have 4+ tabs open), aside from a few glitches solved by restarting the browser. That said, the page does "flash" for a second (probably not a good way to describe it) in the Beta and more recent stable versions, which seems to have been fixed in the latest beta. (Galaxy Nexus on 4.2.2 in case anyone was wondering)

Thanks very much for the feedback. I decided to install it on my Nexus 7, but it still has the same effect. I kept 7 Ars tabs open and read through one article. After 5 minutes, when I returned to several pages, they refreshed and "flashed" before displaying.

It may be minor for some people, but I can't stand it.

:-(

I think thats just a lack of RAM. Chrome for Android seems really heavy on memory compared to other mobile browsers, so I suspect with 1 GB of RAM you're going to have that problem.

Interesting. I am curious why Firefox, Boat and Opera don't show this effect? Why would Chrome be that much more demanding on RAM? I my (uneducated) view, it seems like a defect.

It seems this beta is even worse than the non beta. I just cannot comprehend how bad Chrome can be vs. the old stock browser. Even Firefox is now putting it to shame, and that was utterly horrible when it first started. Of course this is on an older phone, an HTC sensation running 4.0.3.

Does it do full-screen yet, or do I still have to waste precious pixels on the Android status bar when viewing pages?

No, but it does hide the omnibox until you drag up which frees up about as many pixels. My biggest gripe with the betas has been cached page reload performance after the browser or even a tab has been pushed out of memory. It's way slower now than stock. If I didn't have all of my passwords/cookies/bookmarks moved over to Chrome I'd probably switch back FF since mobile FF supports adblock (a 2GB ram phone would help too, it's much better than the early Fenec builds but it's still a pig).

Sort of glad I picked up a Galaxy S3 a couple of months ago instead of waiting for one of the newer Android flagships. When Chrome's quirks are finally worked out and the S4 and One hit some sales, I will be able to switch handsets.

I deal with enough bugs and quirks running elementary OS 0.2. I just want my handset to work.

Chrome is slow and a massive CPU/memory hog. The default Android browser is so much better. They should just give up on mobile Chrome, bring the AOSP browser to the Play store and make a Chrome skinned version of that with their syncing stuff tacked on.

How Google managed to simultaneously make one of the best and worst browsers for Android is beyond me...

As a web developer I am pretty disappointed with Chrome on Android compared to the stock browser, which in Jelly Bean is really good. I love Chrome on the desktop, though.

Yes, it has a better UI (at least parts of it), and syncing with other devices is great. The problem is rendering and bugs. I have reported a bunch of bugs, none which are present in the stock browser. They seem to be taken seriously, but most of them are still not fixed. It has basic problems with things like CSS animations and touch events. Interestingly, the developers often responds that the reason for the bug is some performance thing they have implemented, which shows a big problem with the Chrome browser, since the stock browser still have faster rendering, scrolling and zooming on my Galaxy Nexus. Seems like the developers must do a lot of compromises just to acheive something close to the stock browser.

I really understand that Google wants just one codebase for all their systems, but until Chrome is better on Android, they should simply have used the stock browser's engine and put the Chrome UI and syncing on top of it, and kept the current Chrome Browser as a beta. In my opinion it is not ready for stable, and not ready to be the default and only browser on devices, like the newest Nexus devices.

BTW: I am the only one disliking the new tab page (most visited, favourites and synced tabs)? It is so slow, and flickers a lot. Nothing wrong with it being in HTML (close to all all Chrome content is that), but it is poorly made, far from native app performance. I have considered many times writing a better version to show Google how much better it could have been, with hardware accelerated CSS animations and heavy use of touch events, which gives native app performance and feel, but don't know if it's worth it. It is better on iOS (the entire browser in fact, since it is based on Safari, which again is what the Android stock browser is based on...).

Chrome is slow and a massive CPU/memory hog. The default Android browser is so much better. They should just give up on mobile Chrome, bring the AOSP browser to the Play store and make a Chrome skinned version of that with their syncing stuff tacked on.

How Google managed to simultaneously make one of the best and worst browsers for Android is beyond me...

This.

For shits and grins, I have been using an iPhone 5 for a 2-week trial to kind of "see what I'm missing" since I've been an Android user for the past 4 years. I grabbed Chrome from the App Store and right away noticed how much better the Chrome experience on iOS is than Android. Most likely, it's because it's basically Safari with all the good bits of Chrome layered over the top. The idea of doing the same with the AOSP browser would help things out a lot.

Slightly OT but related, the more consistent, polished UX for iOS is pretty much across the board, not just Chrome. Even GMail and Maps are a little better on iOS than Android, which surprised the hell out of me. I would have thought Google might present a lesser experience on iOS than Android but this is not the case.

One thing that bugs me in the stable version of Chrome on my Galaxy Nexus, is that when you tap the "number of tabs open" icon to view the tabs and selectively close them, the location of the 'X' (close) icons MOVE as a function of the orientation. In portrait mode, they're on the right. In landscape mode, they're on the left. That's a minor but annoying and obviously inconsistent thing. I mean, who would do that, and why?

I also have the tab refresh complaint - pages always refresh when switching back to them. Again, that's a minor thing, but an annoyance. I would guess it to be a memory management thing, as someone else noted. Also as previously noted, the question is why Chrome would have to do that when other browsers don't seem to. I'm sure there's a good explanation but until we know why, it'll bug us. Err, me.

Does the beta re-render all your tabs when you come back to them, like the stable version? That is the biggest reason I cannot use Chrome on Android. I can't stand the "refresh" every time I leave a tab for more than a few moments...

No other browser I have tried ever does that.

This is my only complaint with Chrome on Android. I still use it myself because it's generally great, but I get hit with that re-render issue daily.

Does anyone have a good browser suggestion that renders as complete as Chrome, but doesn't do this?

I am curious if Google switching to Blink and doing the code clean up they talked about will lower its resource needs and speed it up on Android?

This is probably part of the reason to switch to blink. Google wants to have their browser release cycles between mobile and desktop to be similar in form and function. The only way to do this well would be to streamline the code base...

It's really frustrating that they've removed the stock Browser from newer Nexus devices. Seat-of-the-pants performance was noticeably better in Browser on my Galaxy Nexus compared to Chrome on my Nexus 4. Plus quick controls, text reflow, and more. Sync is about the only advantage I can come up with for Chrome.

It's really frustrating that they've removed the stock Browser from newer Nexus devices. Seat-of-the-pants performance was noticeably better in Browser on my Galaxy Nexus compared to Chrome on my Nexus 4. Plus quick controls, text reflow, and more. Sync is about the only advantage I can come up with for Chrome.

It's really frustrating that they've removed the stock Browser from newer Nexus devices. Seat-of-the-pants performance was noticeably better in Browser on my Galaxy Nexus compared to Chrome on my Nexus 4. Plus quick controls, text reflow, and more. Sync is about the only advantage I can come up with for Chrome.

It's really frustrating that they've removed the stock Browser from newer Nexus devices. Seat-of-the-pants performance was noticeably better in Browser on my Galaxy Nexus compared to Chrome on my Nexus 4. Plus quick controls, text reflow, and more. Sync is about the only advantage I can come up with for Chrome.

Is it not possible to sideload it from another Jelly Bean device?

You can. I side-loaded it on my Nexus 4 and Nexus 7.

You need root access to install it, though. Which is no problem for me, but still kind of silly...

I think thats just a lack of RAM. Chrome for Android seems really heavy on memory compared to other mobile browsers, so I suspect with 1 GB of RAM you're going to have that problem.

Interesting. I am curious why Firefox, Boat and Opera don't show this effect? Why would Chrome be that much more demanding on RAM? I my (uneducated) view, it seems like a defect.

Actually, I do have this same problem with Opera, and it drives me crazy. I completely understand it, since I'm still using an old Droid X and have chalked it up to RAM, but I hate switching from Opera to a text message and then coming back to my browser, only to find that Opera has to start new again and reload everything.

I think thats just a lack of RAM. Chrome for Android seems really heavy on memory compared to other mobile browsers, so I suspect with 1 GB of RAM you're going to have that problem.

Interesting. I am curious why Firefox, Boat and Opera don't show this effect? Why would Chrome be that much more demanding on RAM? I my (uneducated) view, it seems like a defect.

Actually, I do have this same problem with Opera, and it drives me crazy. I completely understand it, since I'm still using an old Droid X and have chalked it up to RAM, but I hate switching from Opera to a text message and then coming back to my browser, only to find that Opera has to start new again and reload everything.

hell my droid4 w/ 1gb ram and JB does that. say i'm writing a post in a forum (i hate tapatalk!) in chrome, i get a text, so i pull down the notification bar and click the text. this opens the stock sms app. i read the text, maybe respond, then click back. half the time it will drop me at my home screen, and others it will bring me back to chrome. and invariably the post i was writing is gone forever as it reloads the forum page. i've had that happen with only ONE tab open.

i've also discovered a bug in chrome related to my d4's hardware keyboard that wasn't there before i updated to JB which i'm about to file a report on.

I think thats just a lack of RAM. Chrome for Android seems really heavy on memory compared to other mobile browsers, so I suspect with 1 GB of RAM you're going to have that problem.

Interesting. I am curious why Firefox, Boat and Opera don't show this effect? Why would Chrome be that much more demanding on RAM? I my (uneducated) view, it seems like a defect.

Actually, I do have this same problem with Opera, and it drives me crazy. I completely understand it, since I'm still using an old Droid X and have chalked it up to RAM, but I hate switching from Opera to a text message and then coming back to my browser, only to find that Opera has to start new again and reload everything.

While that is obviously frustrating, it is a little different than the issue we are talking about. When you leave a browser to go to another program, you are throwing it to the wolves (android memory management). What happens will depend on your version of the OS and how much RAM you have.

My complaint is about when I never actually leave the browser. I have been testing out the new Opera beta, based on webkit (soon to be blink?). It also has none of these problems, although (being still beta) it has a few other things to iron out.

Biggest problem left with chrome for android is the ridiculous 'font boosting'. On any site that doesn't disable it with a CSS 'hack' you can have 1 paragraph of jumbo sized text followed by a sentence so small you can barely see it. Ironically one of the best examples of it failing is the xda forum.

Chrome is slow and a massive CPU/memory hog. The default Android browser is so much better. They should just give up on mobile Chrome, bring the AOSP browser to the Play store and make a Chrome skinned version of that with their syncing stuff tacked on.

How Google managed to simultaneously make one of the best and worst browsers for Android is beyond me...

This also pissed me off. I was just going to swipe AOSP apps, but as previously mentioned, the stock apps can't be installed without root.

Anyways I spend a few hours the other day to slightly modify the stock AOSP Browser.apk from JellyBean 4.2.2 so it could be installed without root on a Nexus. These posts inspired me to finally get my act together and throw the code up on GitHub.

A compiled .apk is also available in the GitHub project ( here's a direct link). This will will probably only work with Jelly Bean 4.2 devices (e.g. Nexii).

The only major change is moving the name space around and using a private content provider for bookmarks to avoid collisions with the system provider. As a side effect of this, you won't be able to see your system bookmarks (i.e. from Chrome.apk).

I've only tested this on my own Nexus 4, but would appreciate any feedback.

I just installed this on my Nexus 7, running Android 4.3. It appears to work. Thanks for working on this! Text reflow seems to be working well, which is why I wanted to try it. Let me know if you'd like me to test anything in particular.

Florence Ion / Florence was a former Reviews Editor at Ars, with a focus on Android, gadgets, and essential gear. She received a degree in journalism from San Francisco State University and lives in the Bay Area.